Residents in a moo baan in tambon Pa Bong, Saraphi district, Chiang Mai, were tonight treated to Thailand’s first snowfall in history. The Chiang Mai Mail has reported that at about 9 pm, locals were bemused by the formation of a thin layer of white powder in their gardens.

Suspecting a possible terrorist attack or just ash from a nearby bonfire, a villager alerted Saraphi Police to the scene in his front yard where the white powder continued to fall.

When police arrived, hordes of residents were reportedly outside of their homes trying to make sense of the what was happening. Maj Worapoj Suwannasit of Saraphi Police told reporters that his initial reaction was to evacuate the area.

“We thought that this might have been an anthrax attack, so we treated the situation with extreme caution,” he said.

Local villager Sompratch suspected that a change in the weather may have caused the mysterious white powder to fall from the sky. It was then that a female villager named Kannikar, who has previously traveled to Finland, voiced her opinion that the white powder was snow.

“I’ve seen snow before, so I know how it looks. I tasted some of the powder that was covering the ground and it tasted the same as snow does in Finland,” she said.

A frenzy broke out across the village and the poo yai baan (village headman) declared tomorrow an unofficial public holiday in celebration of Thailand’s first recorded snowfall.

“We’re all so excited to have seen snow that we’re going to celebrate the occasion with a party for everyone in the village,” said Poo Yai Baan Wallop.

Meteorologists, who have been left baffled by the incident, suspect that the snow is the result of global warming.